It was a truism that all civilizations were basically neurotic until they made contact with everybody else and found their place within the ever-changing meta-civilisation of other beings, because, until then, during the stage when they honestly believed they might be entirely alone in existence, all solo societies were possessed of both an inflated sense of their own importance and a kind of existential terror at the sheer scale and apparent emptiness of the universe.

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Monday, December 31, 2012

Toward the end of every year I
like to go over the things that happened in the past 12 months of training,
analyze what I did and didn't do, what went well and what sucked and see where
I’m at in my lifting in terms of weight lifted and bodyweight. It generally
ends up being a mixture of good and bad; however, lifting-wise 2012 saw more
good things than bad.

I also feel like I've found good training templates for all three lifts. Seeing as the world didn't end this
year (although there's still a few hours left), 2013 should be even better.

Most important indicator – weight lifted

In made steady progress in all
three powerlifts and finally broke through a 2-year deadlift plateau. To be
honest, the deadlift has always been my weakest lift and had nowhere to go but
up, but it’s good to see the numbers finally move. Hopefully this means I’ll be
moving it from “pathetic” to “average” in 2013.

Squat:

2011 Max – 480 lbs. @ ca. 198 lbs. BW

2012 Max – 515 lbs. @ ca. 210 lbs. BW

Increase:
25 lbs. Very happy about this, although it did come with an increase in BW.
Last time I was in this BW range I squatted 475, so this is definitely good
improvement.

Bench Press:

2011 Max – 360 lbs. @ ca. 198 lbs. BW

2012 Max – 370 lbs. @ ca. 210 lbs. BW

Increase:
10 lbs. Not terrific, but not bad either. As long as I get to the big 405
eventually I’ll take this. I hit this max on two separate occasions, the second
time thinking I’d increased the weight enough to hit a personal best… oh well L I also increased the
weight I use for repetition work by quite a bit.

Deadlift:

2011 Max – 445 lbs. @ ca. 200 lbs. BW (all-time PR
455 lbs.)

2012 Max – 495 lbs. @ ca. 210 lbs.

Increase:
50 lbs. over my 2011 best, 40 lbs. over my all-time best. Blasted through a
two-year plateau, so I’m even happier about that than about the actual increase
in weight. Will break the 500-mark in the first half of 2013.

Overhead
Press:

2011 Max – 235 lbs. (standing) @ ca. 198 lbs.

2012 Max – 245 lbs. (seated) @ ca. 205 lbs.

This years I switched to seated overhead pressing
to spare the low back, which was getting beat up from the weekly squats and
deadlifts. No standing press PR, but I established new PRs in the seated
military front press of 245 lbs. and behind-the-neck press of 225 lbs. I might
do a cycle of standing presses at the beginning of 2013, but the seated presses
will probably remain my staple overhead pressing movement.

Things that
I think worked in 2012:

- Ran through a few good programs and found out the
ones that give me the biggest bang for my buck

- Consistent about doing shrugs, heavy ab work and
arm work, which I have often neglected in the past

- Glute-ham raises

- Bench pressing twice a week and doing heavier
repetition sets

- Getting serious about deadlift rack work – not
just “ego pulls” from above the knee, which did nothing for my deadlift, but
working the uncomfortable mid-shin and below-knee ranges

- Started
some light running towards the end of the year at no cost to overall strength
levels. I’m more and more convinced that the concept of ‘cardio’ making one
weak is a myth propagated by fat people.

- Super 100s – hundred-rep sets, where I go for a
total of 100 reps with a very light weight. Did these for curls, front shoulder
raises and leg extensions, bench press a few times (just the bar)

- Incline pressing – a great alternative to flat
bench presses. I’m running these through January 2013 to alleviate the right
pec issue, then will go back to regular bench presses

- Creatine – first time I’ve ever used this and it
seems to be working well, but I don’t like the bloat and water weight

Things that
didn’t go that well in 2012:

- Slacking on cable training – the poundages that I
used to pull for reps I now can’t even get singles with. My cable training has
shifted more toward high-rep pulls (sets of 20), which is good, as I do little
bodybuilding work. Still, it’s disappointing to get weak on the big pulls.

- At the end of 2011 I decided to do more overhead
pressing, instead it totally took a back seat to bench pressing

- Persistent discomfort in right pec/delt area. I healed this by avoiding heavy bench presses and doing inclines instead, but I had to cut my last bench press cycle short because of it.

Bench press 245 lbs. x 10 - nice to get back into bench pressing, didn't push the weight or the reps and the set felt nice and comfortable. I'll add a 10-rep set of flat bench presses after each incline pressing session.

The 220x8 almost killed my lower back and hips. I've squatted almost 300 lbs. more than that for a single, but that didn't feel anywhere as tough as this. Funny thing is, my legs (quads and hams) felt fine, but my hips and lower back were screaming for mercy. This either means a) that I have a hidden muscle weakness that the light paused squats will fix, or b) that I have a hidden injury that the light paused squats will aggravate. I'm going with a) until proven otherwise.

I'll keep doing the multiple sets of light squats for a few more sessions, then get back to serious squatting in February or so. I'll also be working on some perceived weak areas, e.g. abduction and adduction, quads, etc.

Monday, December 24, 2012

Today I did a press/squat session and got a lot of work in before the three-day layoff from training I'll be taking next week.

Incline press 3 sets x 6, 1 set x 7

Squat, very light, 8 sets of 8, weight from 135 to 210 lbs. Got a nice pump from this and took very short breaks between sets to get the heart rate up. I need to unload my spine a bit after all the heavy squatting this year and this seems to be a good way to do it (working way below 50% of my 1RM).

Friday, December 7, 2012

Loaded the bar wrong - was supposed to only do 220 for the usual 4x6. The 235 felt weirdly heavy (because I thought it was 220, obviously), but I still squeezed out two okay sets with it, which makes me happy. I feel like I could have done more reps on the last set if I hadn't done the two sets with 235. Next weight - 225 x 4 x 6.

Rubber band tricep pushdowns 3 sets x 15-20 (huge loop, not sure about exact resistance but it was tough)

This might be my tricep exercise of choice for a while, superb pump and zero joint pain.

EZ bar curl with elbows against wall 3 sets x 10

Concentration curl 3 sets x 6

Inclines felt strong, will be upping the weight to 205 lbs. next time. I'm hoping to hit something like 250 lbs. for sets of 6 over the next couple of months, we'll see how it goes. Right pec/shoulder felt better, not sure if it's placebo effect or not.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Tried to bench press again and the pain is still there. I've decided to drop the flat bench press for two months and concentrate on getting my pathetic incline press numbers up, using the same twice-per-week, sets of six approach which has worked well on the bench press. This will provide the necessary break for my injured pec muscle and increase shoulder strength - or at least that's the idea.

I can still bench press with this pain as it's not too bad, but I'd rather not take chances. I feel like I gained a lot of strength in this second cycle: last time my max for the sets of 6 was 280 lbs., this time I ended the cycle at 295, with a corresponding increase in my triples and doubles. However, seeing as I didn't max out after this cycle, I'll never know.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

I'm just not recovering on time, was still sore from the last bench press session. Not a bad effort overall, but definitely not the 5x3 I was looking for. Next week I'm switching to sets of 3 - will start at 325 and take it from there.

Smith machine seated BTN press x 4 sets (last set was sort of heavy, didn't count the weight as I don't know how much the bar weighs)

Monday, October 29, 2012

Weak bench pressing session today, I was still very sore from pressing on Wednesday and the weight felt a good 15 lbs. heavier than it actually was. I think I'm hitting a sticking point in the program but I'll run the remaining 4 weeks and see where it gets me.

I also think eliminating the seated front military press from the second round of the program was a mistake. Will definitely do more of those.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Squat training - dialed the weights back a bit to focus on the deadlift more. The 3x5 cycle I ran worked perfectly, hit a 15-lb. PR without strain. I'll continue with the same training format, but I won't be pursuing a squat PR for a while until my DL improves.

Back squat - high bar and close stance: warmup, 315x5, 365x5, 405x3x5 (hit the quads nicely)

Friday, October 5, 2012

Today I broke a two-year-old deadlift personal record to finish a strong week in which I also set a PR in the squat (and probably a rep record in the bench press - never done a set of 6 with 295 lbs. before, let alone two sets in the same session). Feels good to break out of what seemed like an eternal rut with the pull.

Big PR, last time I tried this I barely got 375x1. Some of the increase is probably due to getting used to the movement, but I think the stiff-legged pulls for sets of 5 have something to do with it too.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Went for a bench press PR today, 370 lbs. x 1, which matches my previous PR. That's a 10 lb. total increase in 2012 (from 360 last year) - not fabulous, but steady on track for the big 405 in a few years' time.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Wanted to hit 345 for five singles but I was too worn out by the previous singles session (Tuesday). Soreness in the wrong areas (shoulders, traps) and just tired overall. To add to the list of bad news, I think I strained my right shoulder. The plan is to take a rest, then try to max out on Wednesday.

Bench press 260 lbs. x 2 sets x 6, 2 sets x 5 - was supposed to hit 260x4x6, but triceps gave out. My endurance is really shitty, on the first 2 sets I felt like I could do 10 reps with the weight and then crapped out by set 3.

Seated front military press - worked up to 205x2, then 215 x 1, 225 x 1 and 235 x 1, the latter 2 being PRs. 245 lbs. didn't come up, but I'm still pretty stoked (especially after all the bench pressing).

Then did some hanging off a bar to stretch my back and some Bulgarian split squats with no weight. I’m surprisingly weak at this movement and need to do it more. I also need to stretch and rest my lower back this week: I did some foam rolling over the weekend and found all sorts of horrible knots in it.

Debated whether I should go for 365 or 370 on the last attempt. 315 felt like 215, so I decided to be ambitious. My form was shitty and I raised my ass off the bench toward the end of the lift, but I'll take it. I'm pretty stoked about hitting 370 this early in the year; this was my target weight for 2012, so I might add a pound or two to it by year-end. Still over 5 months to go.

I'm starting a new deadlift program, a bastardization of Brad Gillingham's pull template that I got from the lift-run-bang. com website. It alternates pulling from different heights in the power rack for max singles with 5-rep sets of stiff-leg deadlifts, then back to the floor building up to a max single. The entire program takes 24 weeks and I'm hoping it'll finally put me over the 500 lbs. mark. My deadlift has sucked long enough - I'm determined to make it at least mediocre this year.

First day - pull from below knee

I thought this would be easier than pulling from mid-shin. Turns out I'm even weaker at this point than from the middle. I've hit 600 from less than two inches higher (above knee), but I can't even pull my full-ROM max from just below the knee. Lots of work ahead...

Came to the gym very hungover today, just to get some work in. It was a solid 70% session overall, better than expected but definitely not strong. I'll repeat the bench press workout on Sunday, I want to hit 330x2x2 before gunning for a max next weekend.

High-rep squat training with safety squat bar: did parallel box squats with SSB, alternating with a training partner (no rest between sets except to wait until the other guy is finished). Light weight, but it absolutely killed my legs and abdominals. Weights and reps below:

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

I've hit the gym about 4 times in two weeks or so and have been doing some random shit with cables almost every day. Worked up to a medium-heavy weight on some lifts - bench press 145 kgs x 1, 130 x 3 x 2, squat 200 kgs x 3, bent-over rows up to 110 kgs x 5. No deadlifts. Eating and drinking too much, but hopefully won't lose too much strength (or gain too much fat). Back to regular training on Monday.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Turns out I'm going out of town next week and won't be back before the end of May. Hopefully I'll be able to do some lifting on the road; if not, I'll make sure I get plenty of cable work in. I haven't been logging it, but I am slowly getting back into cables, mostly high-rep stuff with light resistance on off days.

So the plan is to overtrain slightly, then use the time away to recover.

Bench press 255 lbs. x 2 sets x 8

Close-grip BP 215 lbs. x 7

Wide-grip BP 195 lbs. x 8

Pulldowns - did a 5-4-3-2-1 scheme ending with 240 lbs. x 1

Low cable rows 3 sets x 10 w/ moderate weight

Dips: bodyweight x 10, +25 lbs. x 2 sets x 5

Dead-stop standing BTN press, very wide grip - worked up to a double with light weight, 3 sets overall

Very happy about this. I've been working toward this for a long time. I took some footage of the lift which I will post as soon as it is edited. The video revealed a lot of surprising things about me doing heavy squats - it's a whole different story once the weights get over 400-450.

Sunday, April 22, 2012

I
decided to run another cycle of the Ed Coan bench program. It has worked well
for me in the past, pushing my stalled bench press to 345, then 360 lbs. In
preparation for it I did a high-rep session today, which was painful and
embarrassing (reps over 5 are very hard for me with anything over 200 lbs. and
I tend to fail utterly even with light weights). Rep work is something I need
to get better at and it should build some extra muscle for the heavier phases.

I’ll
be doing a modified “light bench press” day in addition to the regular bench
press session, which will be either heavy shoulders + chest flyes or incline
bench press + moderate shoulder work (haven’t decided yet).

I’m
attempting a 500-lb. squat tomorrow. Regardless of how that goes, I’ve decided
to cycle back on the squats (either do light sets of 8-10 or triples with a
moderate weight for a few months) as the heavy squat program is beating me up
severely and my deadlift is not moving as well as I’d like it to. So I’ll have
more energy to dedicate to pulling and pressing.